PHIL 480: Foucault & Derrida

Earlham College, Fall Semester 2012-2013Wednesday 7:00-10:00, Carpenter 323Instructor: Ferit GüvenOffice: Carpenter 328Office Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday: By appointmentOffice Phone: 983-1399 e-mail: guvenfe@earlham.eduMoodle Page: https://moodle.earlham.edu/course/view.php?id=3451Course Description: As the title suggests, this course consists of studying the works of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. It so happens that Foucault and Derrida had an extended philosophical debate occasioned by Derrida's critique of Foucault's famous work History of Madness. We will follow this debate between Foucault and Derrida which extends from a textual interpretation of Descartes' Meditations to several important philosophical themes such as mastery, madness, history and power. Required Texts: All of the required readings for this course will be available on Moodle. Course Requirement and Evaluation: You are expected to write three (6-8 page) papers. The papers will be on the texts we read in the course. I will provide paper topics for these assignments. For every paper you are responsible for following the general guidelines. (See "Comments and Suggestions for Papers").
For each week, a student will prepare aprotocol. Protocols will be photocopied by the student who wrote it and handed out to all students at the beginning of each Tuesday to be read aloud, and will serve as a cumulative record of the course. The student who prepares the protocol will be required to come to class a couple of minutes early, so that the protocols will have been distributed by the beginning of the class.
There will be quizzes throughout the semester to make sure that you are completing the readings in a timely manner. There will be no make-ups for the quizzes. There will be no final examination!
Your grade will be calculated according to the following distribution: Paper I: 20%, Paper II: 20%, Final Paper: 20%, Protocol: 20%, Class Participation, Quizzes and Attendance: 20%.
Class participation and attendance: Attendance and participation are important dimensions of the course and your grade. I expect you to come to class prepared and ready to participate, i.e., having read the text carefully, and ready to raise and answer questions. If you have not completed the reading for the day, you will not be able to participate in class discussions.
The success of this course depends on your attendance. If you miss 2 sessions, you will lose your entire participation grade (%20). If you miss more than 2 sessions, you will fail this course regardless of your grade. You are required to bring the text (the book or photocopied material) to class, and refer to them during discussions.Our sessions will start at 7:00 pm and end at 10:00 pm. Students are expected to come on time. Walking into (and out of) the classroom while the session is in progress is very disruptive for everybody. For every two late attendance (or early exit) you will be marked as absent for one class session.Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the instructor and Disability Services Office (Academic Support Services) at the beginning of the semester. Accommodation arrangements must be made during the first two weeks of the semester.Calendar: The calender and the reading assigments will be posted on Moodle. There may be some modifications to the calender. It is your responsibility to be aware of these changes. Make sure you follow these changes on Moodle. Back to Homepage.